as the world greets we show you the most spectacular celebrations and look ahead to the potential challenges that face this in the new year. also the year filled with conflict and cuts protests and rest and hear from our correspondents about how it could have been different. fiscal cliff last minute deal looks set for a new year tax hike in america for the time being at least. you're

watching a very happy new year too. new year's global race has wrapped up so let's take a quick look at some of the most spectacular celebrations being held so far new zealand was among the first to washington's a pretty proud spot the harbor no draw to display the city's sky tower almost two million people turned out he celebration australia sydney skyline erupted with a nonstandard draw dropping for works at midnight from the bridge. night need to move on to asia with hong kong which really built up the tension of the countdown the top the sky from both land and sea europe has also welcomed the new year major fireworks display at the brandenburg gate and burnin and becoming one of the world's largest open air parties and a dazzling display also splashed skies above the london eye in the u.k. capital. to million spectators descend york's times

square celebrate the event a traditional. new year in russia officially kicked off when the clock tower in the moscow rang out twelve times square was filled with crowds as our works the skies above the kremlin the russians say it's been a year of major political challenges and the rise of vocal public opinion. has often distracted russian politics or my colleagues travel and he said no way asked how he sees things panning out. what is the future of russia's political opposition and as you see the new compared to two thousand and twelve i would say it's kind of bleak but not hopeless ok we didn't come up with any new ideas new organization new faces in the pussy riot is that we are of the opposition or it's pretty dreadful situation for the russian people and political development in general here in this

political change in this country in a positive change who does make up the opposition as we head into. it's a very interesting question because i have gone to most of the major demonstrations and there were people there of goodwill in my opinion but then there were fascists there ok who were communists there and they were these are people there ok and if you are right to demonstrate i actually like the idea but they didn't accomplish anything that i could see they had no organization no unifying ideas except for i don't like but a mere putin which is not a very it's not a political agenda there were a few protests which i was out as well where it did seem like that was the method if you wanted to gain traction on this opposition movement do you see people coming out and take the train lost a lot of its novelty effect right now ok because political change takes years in years in years that have to be local this is what happens in political changes with countries that were what they were carrying at one time it takes a long time to get people involved in the process and that is happening very very

strongly there are some people who want to really fast and they don't want to do it through elections they want power because they want power because they believe they deserve it and what about the fact that we're not going to see any presidential elections of course that all led up to being elected a third term this protest and now they're kind of when i down now oh i would say to people i mean if you want to continue to protest in but you know join a political party there are forty four of them now you have a choice ok get involved see one of the things i saw with a lot of the protesters is that they want someone else to do all the hard work ok they want to go out and wave a flag and say give out a slogan they don't want to do the hard nitty gritty work of political change and that's what they need to do and i would be looking at the next parliamentary election for change we'll know we certainly will be going to be easy to come up as one of the great programs in store we wish you all the very best to cross talk of the new year on out thank you. well twenty thirteen will be year of change for iran

as the current president steps down to a successor in sight exactly. upcoming elections take the fun eyes off their rounds nuclear ambitions that's later the program. also on the way the last two years of seeing this struggling tragedy in syria many say twenty thirteen will fail to bring long awaited peace to the war torn state. america is breathing a sigh of relief for going into the new year as lawmakers in washington strike a temporary deal on the edge of the so-called fiscal cliff the senate has already agreed to hold the proposed tax hike in two sent to effect the action every u.s. welcome but it's not all good news deal has still to go before the house of representatives later in the day and be thrashed out fully in a few months time nobody is talking about the true issue to the fact that the country and the western world is bankrupt basically this is a classic case of kicking the can down the road they didn't want to address it

before the election so they said we'll extend the debt and we'll just wait till next year and they thought it would go up quite a bit further but the deficit ran up so much faster than anticipated well take care of it tomorrow and that's all the politicians in the u.s. or anywhere to they're not proactive they're not problem solvers they don't care about you and all they care about is their own little power and you know let the rest of the world be damned you are rich american doesn't understand why his country by the world economy is going down the drain all they know is class warfare which is what the administration wants that the banks are getting rich and they're getting poorer they don't understand why any of this is happening so for the average american they're going to pay some more taxes but the average american is in fear of losing his job and losing everything that he's worked this whole life for and he doesn't have

a clue why. economic experts. also gave his full cost on how the financial winds will blow in twenty eight thirty the fiscal cliff just more theater. for manipulating the system. trying the economy. grow more theater it doesn't really focus on the true underlying problem that we're going to see more of this. tension. and. they want to just delay that for many months if they can but that day of reckoning . it's. one of the. not too happy about it the e.u. is also celebrating with. twenty twelve new.

to america's main political event the presidential election and it was a close race with the runners neck and neck until convincingly beat his republican rival mitt romney but the competition overshadowed some third party candidates who were left struggling to get their voices. on the road to the white house. there were cheers of relief here when he won i would say because the alternative was thought to be so much worse many voted out of fear that romney could win for them he was another george w. bush so whether americans have fallen out of love with obama the two thousand and eight euphoria was gone that's for sure back then there were these crowds you know in the streets all across the country shedding tears of joy so bad in their view where the eight years of bush presidency obama was greeted as the savior and then

he went and saved the banks saved the auto industry something he took a special pride in during the election campaign but across the country people remained out of work and are still out of work so this time president obama ran under the banner it could have been so much worse as you imagine it was not a banner for national euphoria it was more like you have no choice but to choose me kind of better something that shocked me while i was covering the election here it was it was the second debate between obama and romney i'm sure you remember you remember that as a presidential nominee from the green party jule styne was arrested right outside the venue where the debate was taking place she was protesting for exclusion from the debate and nobody like no news channel cleared mentioned her arrest none and i was switching channels for hours to see if anything was said about that and it was nothing i can imagine what the reaction would be here in the states if a presidential candidate is the mother of the country was arrested in the media

there wouldn't even mention it but apparently it happens in the u.s. no big deal presidential candidates get arrested all the time right well there was some irony that yes anyway during the election campaign the mainstream media had been focused on nothing else and no one else but these two candidates and we are t.v. as you remember of course saw the saw an opportunity there to show what others don't and we hosted the debate. well there was one event that shook the u.s. so badly it convinced president obama to put the country's treasured second amendment on the scrutiny the sunday hook promise that twenty children and six stone dead so the president urging a ban on some firearms auntie's tom hartman looks at whether the new year might bring some change to america's weapons policy my guess is what we're going to see is cosmetic change we're going to see probably the or the assault weapons ban come back they'll be a fair number of loopholes in it but you know the u.s.

is not going to end up going the way that's what's a longer israel have done or many most european countries have done australia when john howard was president one thousand nine hundred eight when there was a mass slaughter and then they said ok that's it we're going to buy back all the guns and it's not going to happen here there's just too much money being made with guns insane supreme court or at least five right wing crazies out of the nine on the supreme court decided that even though the second amendment says in order to maintain a well regulated militia necessary for the security of a free state the right to you know you people have the right to own guns that's half of it the other half of it is that the supreme court also said that corporations interest groups lobbying groups billionaires can throw unlimited amounts of money in politicians. freedom of speech but not of the speaker we report on the world's most wanted whistle blow to a song. to keep us under house arrest and in hiding that's coming up in a few minutes.

download the official. language stream quality and enjoy your favorite. if you're away from. your mobile devices you can watch your t.v. anytime anywhere. today. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. corporation the day.

wars uprisings crises and worldwide protests may twenty twelve a time when you might have turned out differently. exposed headlines that could have been. twenty twelve was certainly full of disappointing headlines hope fueled by the arab spring turned into the turmoil of the arab autumn the war in syria claimed countless lives and the fiscal crisis all the european union torn apart at its very seams and the problems facing our world today certainly don't offer themselves up to an easy fix what if things have turned

out differently what if opportunities were actually the pawn instead of missed well here's our look at the twenty twelve headlines that could have been. diplomacy succeeds in syria ending bloody conflict. instead this was the image of syria the world saw increasingly violent clashes between government forces and the opposition had claimed more than forty thousand lives efforts to negotiate a diplomatic solution fell flat because divisions ripped apart both the country and the international community hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled to neighboring states where many have found conditions to be dismal meanwhile syria's war is threatening to spill over its borders as tensions escalate within and in the region. told me to try and sanction slash does iran nuclear to accept. going to end game for the us rules to restrict far on. mideast peace with israel

league's two state park whose palestine. yet this was their reality israel's assault on palestinian militants in gaza israel's anti-missile shield repelled the most attacks on its territory but a strike claimed the lives of more than one hundred sixty palestinians many of them civilians despite harsh condemnation from many in the international community the war and israel's subsequent decision to construct three thousand new settlements effectively slammed the door shut to any prospects of peace go through people power moment he's. step aside and let a democracy. get lost get my notorious kuantan of my prison permanently shot. euro zone cuts the cuts and lifts austerity. but the news of austerity only tightened as deep public sector cuts brought thousands of angry demonstrators to the streets of greece spain italy and portugal. the worst economic crisis of

a generation has battered the european union's very foundations exacerbating tensions between member states with some regions now desperately wanting out i grew up in a europe that was divided from east to west living in a europe that is divided from old to self never at any point in the history of this union has there been more discord of rank that we cover to go corporate cash for the campaign coffers as part of the us political please. know here for u.k. brits quit european union. we can leaks founder julian the solyndra pointed un free speech and. instead a song remains a political refugee at ecuador's london embassy where he's been granted asylum he continues to fight extradition to sweden over alleged sex crimes charges that he says are politically motivated and tied to his work in leaking international government secrets. the power of people speaking up and resisting together

terrifies corrupt democratic power so much so that only people here in the west and the enemy of governments an enemy to be watched and enemy to be can for all and to be impoverished true democracy is not the white house true democracy is not. true democracy is the resistance of people with the truth against flies from right here in london. every day ordinary people teach us that democracy is free speech and just sent. from heretics to hero american whistleblower bradley manning finally free. droning on the nations agree to end iraq of remote control. egypt's arab spring sees democracy defeated hardline islam is. the reality on the ground was anything but egyptian president

mohamed morsi is fouled like power grab unleashed fury and frenzied street battles and a fast track to constitutional overhaul referendum left a bitter opposition eager for change for them two thousand and twelve saw the arab spring transformed into an egyptian nightmare had a revolution to get rid of a tyrant dictator. in order to that we made elections and the revolution and elections to choose someone to the present us turned out that this guy is also a tyrant himself and these headlines may have been the stuff of imagination but that sea of twenty thirteen can bring any of them to life with the confidence of our t.v. moscow syria has reportedly opened the new year with a horrifying discovery of dozens of corpses in the capital damascus some of the bodies were decapitated and bore traces of torture have not yet been identified it

comes and widespread doubts they'll be any imminent breakthrough in syria's bloody civil standoff. very sad to say to everybody all over the world that the top geopolitical tragedy of two thousand and thirteen is going to be the top geopolitical tragedy of two thousand and eleven the rape of syria the only possibility it would be that the opposition. in a syrian way this sides not to listen to the saudis the turks their qataris the americans the brits and the french and they sit down with the assad government and they will work out a transitional government or at least a transitional period leading to free and fair elections is this going to happen not likely well there's been no love lost between palestinians and israelis in the aftermath of yet another war between the two today television is planning new settlements on occupied palestinian land. to rearm and defend themselves and seize

a porous new reports now on what it bodes for the future. to look at what's happening on the ground israel continues to announce settlement construction and the palestinians continue to say that for as long as these announcements continue they will be no resumption of peace talks it wasn't so long ago that the palestinians were routed upgraded status at the united nations but you cannot detract from the fact that we still have palestinian faction groups hamas and fattah who always seem to be at each other's throats in less than a month the israelis will go to the polls and by all predictions they will reelect the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu for another term of office and it doesn't seem as if he has an olive branch so certainly the prognosis for any kind of peace moves is far back in two thousand and eight two thousand and nine we had a conflict that was twenty two days long by comparison this time around it was eight days four years ago the casualty count was more than a thousand people who were killed most of them palestinians this time around the

casualty count was was a lot lower and again four years ago there was a ground offensive this time around there wasn't a ground operation. where in june twenty thirty in iran will be holding a presidential election where whoever demijohn would be running or having served in maximum two terms there is no certainty as to who will take over at a time when iran's nuclear ambitions continue to be a thorn in some western nations sides with journalists. he's often shared his insights with us does he think the new leader will bend to foreign will. i think whoever we people of iran elect policy foreign policy terms things are going to be much the same terminology of western corporate media on this or a bizarre image that islamic extremists of all sorts of different morning because the point is iran is there to stay in terms of forging a very different type of developing nation economy because it has all the oil it

has all those resources and it's not going to suddenly start changing things the way the i.m.f. or the way washington wants it to be. in europe people are busy making their new year wishes and plenty of them have their fingers crossed that things will be a little less tight in twenty thirteen best advice that patrick young says greece still doesn't have a functioning government system that will be able to save the country from the deep recession it now faces what's happened so far has been swindling cuts on the masses and we really haven't managed to make the remotest impact upon the whole nation itself greece is still fundamentally in a huge problematic situation it does not remotely have a functioning government system that fiscally is going to manage to organize itself in any which way possible to manage to get through the continuing swinge cuts that

need to take place and of course then we're looking at the whole issue of the demonstrators are the governments listening well the truth is the governments can't afford to listen because what we're seeing within the european union even if the euro has survived miraculously for twelve months government has run out of money the european union's western socialist model of spending huge amounts of money borrowing even greater amounts of money and hoping to pay everything manyara or indeed thirty years from manion or simply does not work. well there any three years ago i was bankrupt in receiving a baby to rescue his failed economy but despite this the very same country has just assumed a six month presidency of the european council. smith reports not the celtic tiger some hard graft ahead of it. it's all changed by the e.u. presidency as takes over the six months rotating challenge on the first of january

not the ovi a choice islands one of the pegs the countries that have the least stable economies in europe and sure enough the first country to take on the presidency of the twenty seven nation bloc while being propped up by i.m.f. money so for the next six months the e.u. and systemic problems will be presided over by one of its weakest and most problematic members so what specific challenges faced in europe over the six months of its presidency first the european economy is slowing and the crisis is nowhere near over secondly it must preside over leaders actually agreeing to an e.u. budget for the year two thousand and fourteen to two thousand and twenty something they've spectacularly failed to do so far and thirdly there is a problem coming from right here in london increasing british opposition to

brussels and the threat to european cohesion that poses the irish government expects the e.u. presidency to coast in excess of seventy million euros money the country can ill afford and what will it be spent on twenty four million on catering accommodation and transport for example and another twenty million extra government. but during the song spent half a year on the house arrest and the other half holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london but he still managed to produce a t.v. series talking to the key news makers shunned by the mainstream media well correspondent in london. has been following his ups and downs through the year a lot of you say wiki leaks in jail is like that more in a year old media organizations have done in decades we've really had a front seat view of everything that's been going on we had him at the beginning of the year fighting that extradition to sweden we saw his the pill rejected we then

saw that dramatic twist in the tell when he went into the i could do it embassy seeking asylum we. certainly the british media we see a lot of them turned on him quite viciously especially during the course of this year with these. events happening surrounding. a lot of people who would put that down plain and simply to jealousy. well the biggest stories of twenty twelve didn't make it to the public eye next breaking the set. on the march under god these men and women are walking one of the longest and probably the loneliest road in the world they're reenacting the march into exile made by thousands of czarist russia. if i was here three hundred years ago

i may have disappointed my local lot i may have deserted from the army or a variety of other crimes the result was the same like my fellow prisoners around me i've got a long and very cold walk ahead into exile in siberia yet it took them years to get there summers and winters entire years a lot of people died on the way this group in the western siberian region of almost discovered they're living on the only surviving stretch of the original nine thousand kilometers of the siberian exiles track that's had no modern changes made to it yevgeny discovered that he's descended from some of these exiles and decided to build a museum telling a story he and his re-enact has now received as it has from all over the world to show them what it was like what the story is going to stop it's scary to put the shackles on of course but it's interesting if we don't remember our history we will have no future we want to say it's

a monument to one of the czarist russia cruellest chapters. the city served as the capital of anti communist white russian leader admiral culture shock in the civil war from one thousand nine hundred to nine hundred nineteen whilst in residence he lived here though the study of the man like the maintenance of this building has remained a taboo right up until the present day. we still receive hate mail saying that he hanged a lot of people and was famous for severe punishment it's all true but it was at a time of civil war both sides were monstrously cruel it is sadly the theme of cruelty which links so much of on past history to the rest of russia's particularly of exile where they were an apple or a criminal. to

live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food i should try it because you know how fabulous bad luck i got so many i mean. i believe that i'm seeing the same thing really messed up. in the old series so personally apologize and. worse for the little. white house or for the radio guy in fort lauderdale minestrone they want. to give you never seen anything like this i'm still. going on i'm out a martin this is breaking the set so today is army private whistleblower bradley manning's twenty fifth birthday and as of today he spent nine hundred thirty six days in attention in iraq kuwait and now quantico virginia is in prison and has been condemned by the u.s. .